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Healing of the Paralytic

“The Anglican Communion is in need of healing, and the antidote is Jesus Christ,” Archbishop Henry Orombi told delegates Monday. Delivering a keynote address at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem, Orombi, Primate of the Anglican Church of Uganda, called on the delegates to examine both themselves and the Church and submit both to divine healing.

Speaking shortly after the 1,200 delegates had completed a symbolic visit the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem, Orombi likened the Church, and the individuals who comprise it, to the paralytic in the Biblical account in John 5.

“Like that paralytic at the pool, the Church is living but is powerless. That man could see, but he could not recognise Jesus.

Jesus asked him,“Do you want to get well.” “Friends, in our Anglican Communion, I sense that the Lord is asking us the same question,” said Orombi. “Do you want to be healed?”

The Anglican Communion, Christianity’s third-largest denomination that brings together 82 million believers on all continents, has been increasingly divided as some of its member churches have strayed from mainstream Christian beliefs.

“Many times we beat about the bush, complicating things,” Orombi said. “But Jesus told the paralytic three simple things: ‘Get up; pick your bed; walk’” As the paralytic obeyed Christ’s word, he was healed. The Word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword. It brings meaning to meaningless situations. Let us be a church that obeys the Word of God. Do know your Healer?”

Sin is deadly… The Church that does not run from sin will be destroyed by it,” Orombi said, appealing to the delegates to heed Christ’s warning to the healed paralytic to not sin any more.

“I come from a church (Uganda) where you testify how Jesus has touched you,” said Orombi, urging delegates to testify to God’s healing, transforming power.

The thousand-strong group listened attentively in a room that was suffused with the symbolism of the Church yesterday, today and tomorrow. A modern, carpeted auditorium, with overhead projector, controlled lighting and multi-watt public address system was tempered by foot-long candles, made in Bethlehem, a five-foot cross from the Via Dolorosa (where Jesus carried His cross on the way to crucifixion) in Jerusalem’s Old City, and Middle Eastern chalices making up a makeshift alter.

“Restoration is divine activity. Even today God sorts out families and cultures. Jesus is saying here in Jerusalem that, ‘I am working in the Anglican Communion.’” He added that it will not be our genius, nor the conference communique that will sort us out, nor the wisdom of the Archbishops. It will be the “Archbishop of archbishops” - God Himself..

“Jesus is Lord over the Anglican Communion. He will bring life to our paralysis. His power will be on us when we walk out of GAFCON. This is the time to wait upon God, and be filled with His Spirit. Jesus is saying, ‘rise up and go’.”